Dhanya Balakrishna

Dhanya Balakrishna is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil films along with Telugu and Malayalam films. After making her debut in A. R. Murugadoss's 7aum Arivu (2011), in a supporting role,^[1] she appeared in ventures including Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012), Atlee's Raja Rani (2013) and Srikanth Addala's Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2013). Dhanya made her debut as female lead in Telugu with Chinni Chinni Aasa (2013).

Dhanya Balakrishna was born in Bangalore, Karnataka.^[2] She was educated at MES. She married Tamil filmmaker and actor Balaji Mohan in January 2022 after falling in love while filming As I'm Suffering From Kadhal (2017).^[3][4]

Dhanya began her acting career with performances in theatre, before playing a supporting role in A. R. Murugadoss's 7aum Arivu (2011) alongside Suriya and Shruti Haasan.^[5] She was next seen in two bilingual projects, portraying supporting roles in Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (2012) and then Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012).^[5][6]

Dhanya, portrayed supporting role in the 2013 Telugu film Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu as a girl who proposes to the character played by Mahesh Babu; while in Raja Rani (2013), she was seen as Nivitha, a friend of Nayantara's character. Her first leading role was in the Telugu film Chinni Chinni Aasa (2013), released in November 2013, while other projects, Amrutham Chandamamalo and Second Hand, were released thereafter. She has been part of nearly 40 movies and 10 web series. She able to speak kannada, tamil and telugu fluently.

In 2012, when the IPL team Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs, Dhanya took to Facebook and wrote a disparaging message, alleging that people from Chennai were dependent on the people of Bangalore for basic necessities.^[10] She claimed that Chennai residents (Tamils) relied on Bangalore for water and electricity, further asserting that they contributed to making Karnataka's capital unclean when visiting.

These remarks sparked significant backlash at the time. Dhanya Balakrishna initially announced her departure from Tamil cinema. However, despite this declaration, she continued to feature in Tamil films such as Raja Rani, Carbon, and Yaar Ivan, as well as in Tamil web series like As I'm Suffering From Kadhal.^[11]

In 2024, as the release of Lal Salaam, directed by Aishwarya Rajinikanth, approached, Dhanya's past comments resurfaced as she was cast as a lead in the film. People questioned the director's decision to cast someone who held negative views about the Tamil community in a Tamil film.^[12]

Responding to the controversy, Dhanya issued a statement denying authorship of the post. The actress asserted that the post was fabricated by a troll, vehemently denying ever making such derogatory comments. She pledged her professional integrity, affirming that she had never expressed such sentiments in the past.^{[13][non-primary source needed]}